Red Hat is taking a second crack at trying to spread its open-source philosophy beyond the realm of software development.
On Wednesday, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Linux seller announced a partnership with the nearby University of North Carolina to try to encourage use of the open, collaborative model in the fields of health care research, biotechnology, bioinformatics and public policy.
"The history of open source has taught us that the more broadly and transparently information is shared and re-used, the faster and stronger the results," Joanne Rohde, Red Hat's executive vice president of operations, said in a statement.
The move hearkens back to 1999, when the company launched the Red Hat Center for Open Source, with company co-founder Marc Ewing leading the effort. In an interview at the time, Ewing said, "What we want to be able to do is facilitate thinking and discussion about the principles of open source and how they apply in communities other than the software development community--law, medicine, business, governance, scientific research, education."
That earlier effort fizzled. This time, however, the company has a partner.
"We need to know what works faster, better and cheaper than we could do in the past. That means collecting data from more sources, not just in teaching hospitals...but in all settings where new technologies are being used--private practices, health departments, health education centers and walk-in clinics," said Etta Pisano, vice dean for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina's Biomedical Research Imaging Center.
Red Hat Chief Executive Matthew Szulik had words of encouragement Thursday for the Free Software Foundation's latest draft of General Public License version 3, an overhaul to a license that underlies the heart of Linux and many other open-source projects.
"I think the draft we saw last night was much better than the earlier drafts, especially around patent infringement and TiVo-ization," he said in a conference call to recount Red Hat's quarterly profit.
The "TiVo-ization" situation regards the foundation's desire to prohibit GPL software from being used in hardware devices, such as TiVo's digital video recorders, that prevent users from making changes to software; the new GPL draft has narrowed such restrictions. And the patent requirements are also narrower, requiring companies to give license to patents relating to software they contribute to GPL projects, not when they distribute it, as required in earlier drafts.
In addition, Michael Tiemann, an Open Source Initiative board member and Red Hat's former chief technology officer, had warm words in a blog entry.
"I have read the newly released draft of GPLv3 carefully, and I believe it is a stunning accomplishment," Tiemann said. And the Free Software Foundation, he said, "remains centered on software freedom, and that the only prohibition they uphold is against those who seek to undermine such freedom. It is encouraging to see an organization maintain principle in the face of prosperity."
There are those who are unhappy with the new draft, too. Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of open-source mobile-phone synchronization software company Funambol, griped on his blog about the foundation's decision not to pursue what's been called the ASP (application service provider) loophole. GPL requires programmers to publish modifications they've made to software when they distribute it, but some believed offering GPL software as a service over the network should count in effect as a form of distribution. The foundation explicitly decided not to pursue that option.
"It has been made very clear that the ASP loophole is not a loophole anymore. It is perfectly fine to change GPLv3 software and offer it to the public as a service, without returning the changes to the community," Capobianco said. "That means 75 percent of the future software (which is going to be software as a service) could be offered by leeches that suck the soul of open source for their pure benefit. They make money, while others work for them for free, to make them rich."
However, Google, many of whose online services use Linux computers and which contributes to several open-source projects, is happy with the ASP situation, according to Chris DiBona, Google's manager of open-source programs, speaking to InternetNews.com.
Linux fans will be delighted to know that their operating system of choice is being used to power an airplane's multimedia system. Not such great news, though, was its fallibility, as recounted by Brandon Watts at OS Weekly, who tangled with Tux, the Linux penguin mascot, while returning from Paris.
While others on the plane could use touch screens to watch movies and TV or play games, Watts' screen showed a Red Hat error message--"a black and white boot screen of doom," he said. He figured out that touching the bottom-right corner of the screen repeatedly restarted the system, but it crashed 15 minutes into the movie. During a second attempt, others started experiencing the same problems, and ultimately the entire system crashed and had to be rebooted.
"I don't know about you, but the word 'reboot' isn't exactly something that I want to hear while flying in a plane at 30,000 feet in the air, even though it was funny to see Tux plastered on hundreds of screens at the same time," he said.
SAN FRANCISCO--Red Hat will ship its new version 5 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to customers in March, spokeswoman Kathryn Poole said Tuesday.
But the software is done now, Chief Technology Officer Brian Stevens said in an interview.
"The party is Thursday--assuming we don't have a snow day," Stevens said. There are no more blocking issues, and the company issued a near-final release candidate last week, he said.
In a December interview, Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said the final "gold code" RHEL 5 software would ship February 28. Stevens, though, said final releases are burdened with scheduling issues such as getting CDs back from manufacturers and getting the Red Hat Network support system adapted to the new software.
Red Hat on Thursday released the first test version of Fedora 7, the company's fast-moving but unsupported version of Linux.
Fedora 7 unifies the "Core" components with the "Extras" maintained by others. The test version is only available in a desktop version for now, said release engineer Jesse Keating.
The software is scheduled to be complete on April 27, according to the Fedora 7 schedule.
Red Hat is arguably the most enthusiastic commercial advocate of open-source software. But one component of the company's technology, the software that powers its online update service, isn't.
That's going to change starting this year, according to Rich Friedman, director of product management.
Red Hat has begun a project to build a new management system that will work both with the Red Hat Network that keeps Red Hat Enterprise Linux up to date and with the JBoss Operations Network that does the same for the company's Java server software.
"The two teams are coming together to define the architecture," Friedman said, adding that the first fruits of the project will begin emerging this year.
Given that the technology is central to Red Hat's lucrative subscription-based support business, an open-source technology to distribute software to thousands of customers could be helpful for others trying to duplicate the Linux seller's approach.
Matt Asay, vice president of marketing for open-source document management software company Alfresco, reported Red Hat's move on his blog.
The RHN project employs software to which doesn't have Red Hat open-source rights, Friedman said. JBoss ON uses the open-source Hyperic systems management software. It's possible the Red Hat project will include existing open-source components.
Given the cooperative nature of the open-source realm, Red Hat's move could help others with similar challenges. That includes Asay.
"We've been looking for something so that we don't have to build our own," Asay said in an interview.
For those companies wishing Linux would work with their widgets, core programmers are offering to write the necessary software support for free.
Greg Kroah-Hartman, a programmer at Novell, announced the Linux driver program on his blog Monday. The "Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development...All that is needed is some kind of specification that describes how your device works, or the e-mail address of an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while," he said.
In an interview, Kroah-Hartman said the program is offered by the Linux Foundation, the industry group formed by the merger earlier this month of the Open Source Development Labs and Free Standards Group. The foundation has a program under which developers can sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) so companies can share proprietary information needed to build open-source drivers.
Those who participate benefit by seeing their drivers incorporated into the main repository of Linux; being included in the products of major Linux sellers; having their drivers run on the numerous processors Linux can employ; and getting ongoing maintenance from kernel programmers.
"Now your developers will have more time to work on drivers for all of the other operating systems out there, and you can add 'supported on Linux' to your product's marketing material," Kroah-Hartman said. "This offer is in effect for all different types of devices, from USB toys to PCI video devices to high-speed networking cards. If you build it, we can get Linux drivers working for it."
The Union Bank of California is standardizing on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the software company said Monday. The bank moved away from AIX, IBM's version of Unix, and also is testing the waters with Red Hat's JBoss Java server software and the open-source MySQL database software.
"Open-source technology plays a major role in the customer-facing sales and service product line,ï¿? said Mok Choe, the bank's chief technology officer. He said the company is moving its Web site to a "horizontal" architecture involving larger numbers of inexpensive servers.
Update: MySQL is included with Red Hat's operating system product and can be downloaded for free from MySQL's Web site, but in this case the bank also has a direct relationship with the company, said Zack Urlocker, vice president of marketing for MySQL.
Red Hat said its acquisition of the JBoss open-source Java server software would mean $22 million to $27 million in new revenue from June 2, 2006, when the acquisition was completed, and February 27, 2007, when the Linux seller's quarter ends. The company's quarterly report, released Tuesday, indicates that the company will just make that goal.
In the most recent quarter, JBoss generated $7.8 million for the company, an 11 percent increase over the $7 million from the first quarter in the Red Hat tent. "Extrapolating these numbers puts JBoss on track for about $22 million to $23 million in revenue for the nine months ending February 28," said Jefferies and Co. securities analyst Katherine Egbert.
JBoss is a significant expansion of Red Hat's software business, which before the acquisition had chiefly been for the lower-level Linux operating system. Red Hat spent $329 million for the company. If the JBoss division meets certain financial goals in calendar years 2006 and 2007, Red Hat will pay about $70 million more.
Red Hat has once again updated its constant effort to create a free Linux version that's best suited to the company's own goals and the workings of the open-source movement.
Red Hat programmer Bill Nottingham last week announced new features for Fedora 7, including a unification of the Red Hat-controlled Core components and the ancillary Extras. The move reverses the Extras direction, which Red Hat hoped in 2005 would lighten its programming load.
"Starting with Fedora 7, there is no more Core, and no more Extras; there is only Fedora. One single repository, built in the community on open-source tools, assembled into whatever spins the Fedora community desires," Nottingham said in a mailing list posting.
A test version of Fedora 7 is due January 23, with the final product expected April 26.
Among expected Fedora Core 7 features:
• "Rock-solid" wireless networking
• Addition of a LiveCD version so people can try Linux by booting off a CD
• Fast switching among different users
• Consolidation of multiple dictionaries for spell-checking
• Functioning IEEE 1394 "Firewire" support
• Support for encrypted file systems
• Changes so the ticking of Linux's internal clock won't wake the system up from power-saving modes
• Faster start-up and shutdown
Separately, Red Hat said Monday that more than 1 million people have downloaded the most recent version, Fedora Core 6. The company's next paid version, called Red Hat Enterprise Linux and due February 28, is updated less frequently and includes long-term support.
